A combined 2,729 feet – more than a half mile – was the total distance traveled by Florida baseball’s seven home runs in Saturday night’s game, which bled into the early hours of Sunday.
And those figures couldn’t have come at a better time as the Gators delivered them against in-state rival Miami in a 22-10 victory to advance to the Gainesville Regional final and put UF one win away from reaching a Super Regional.
“It was kind of crazy,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I can’t explain tonight.”
A total of 1,959 of those feet came in the eighth inning alone as five of Florida’s long balls came in the eighth frame, which prompted the chants of “S-E-C!”from Condron Ballpark.
Of those 1,959 feet, 1,183 came in three straight at-bats, as Brendan Lawson contributed 395 feet, Blake Cyr tacked on 386 feet, and then Ethan Surowiec added 402 feet.
“I was probably just like everybody in this (media) room and all of the fans, it was just one of those weird moments that doesn’t happen very often,” said O’Sullivan of the five home runs hits. “The fans were unbelievable tonight. I’ve never seen the atmosphere like it was tonight. It helped. There’s no question it helped us the entire night.”
Cade Kurland and Karson Bowen also contributed 379 feet and 397 feet in the eighth inning, respectively.
“For me, the biggest thing I try to say to a lot of the guys who haven’t been to the postseason is score as many runs as you can because it makes your life a lot easier,” said Bowen when asked about his experience in the postseason. “Especially, when they score 10, and we come back and drop 22, it helps you on all sides of the ball.”
The duo of Bowen and Kurland contributed an additional 404 and 366 feet as each homered earlier in the game.
The five home runs in an inning were a program record, and the seven home runs were a program NCAA tournament game record.
An even stranger figure is that Florida tallied two different innings in which the Gators plated seven runs. The difference was that seven runs came from seven hits, and the other seven-run frame came with just one hit.
The 22 runs were the most Florida has ever scored against Miami. Not to mention, the 22 runs came from a split of 11 earned runs and 11 unearned runs as the Hurricanes committed four errors.
“I’m just happy we scored 22,” O’Sullivan said. “A lot of our guys are seeing the ball really well right now. You have to be able to hit, defend, and you have to be able to pitch and run the bases intelligently. We haven’t pitched our best in this tournament yet.”
Reach Florida Gators writer Andrew Abadie at AAbadie@usatodayco.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @AndrewAbadie. You can also find him on Facebook at Andrew Abadie Sports Reporter or on Instagram @andrewabadie_sports.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Inside the numbers of Florida baseball’s seven home runs in NCAA regional win vs Miami
Reporting by Andrew Abadie, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
